I am sure, if you think about
it, there are Christians who have impacted your life. Perhaps it was a parent,
a friend, a brother or sister, a member of this church, or some other person
who influenced you positively for the cause of Christ.

What about you?Does your life have impact for the Lord
Jesus? Does it count in a positive way for Him? In order for it to have impact,
you first know Jesus as your Savior.

When you trust Christ as Savior,
He expects you to have an impact for Him. John 15:16, Colossians 3:17,
Ephesians 2:10

Now you might be asking, “How
can I have impact for the Lord Jesus?I’m not a speaker. I’m not a Bible teacher.I don’t consider myself to be very
gifted.”

As we continue in the Sermon on
the, I believe that the Lord Jesus shows us two ways to have impact for Him.

We find in this brief passage,
we can be

IMPACT PRAY-ERS and

IMPACT PLAYERS

IMPACT PRAY-ERS – Vss. 7-11

Let me ask you a question.

The question is how obedient are you to the teachings
on the Sermon on the Mount?

·Are you more humble, totally reliant on God, poor in
spirit since we started?

·Are you a better peace maker, since we started?

·Are you obviously acting as the salt of the earth and
the light of the world?

·Have you sought forgiveness from those who have
something against you?

·Have you truly forgiven everyone who needs
forgiveness?

·Are you as pure on the inside as you appear to be on
the outside?

·Do you go about your religion without trying to make
it obvious to others that you are religious?

·Are you praying sincere prayers, using the Lord’s
Prayer as a pattern?

·Are you laying up treasure in Heaven instead of on
earth?

·Are you seeking first the Kingdom of God and his
righteousness?

·And just last week we talked about being
judgmental.How are you doing not
passing judgment on others, especially fellow Christians?

·We also talked about taking 2 by 4’s out of our own
eyes before we try to take splinters out of the eyes of others.

·And in a few minutes we will make it worse by talking
about treating others as we want to be treated. How are you doing at that?

We can’t impact our world for Christ unless we are
living by the Sermon on the Mount.How
are you doing?

Believe it or not, I am not trying to lay a guilt trip
on you.

I have a long way to go in my own practice of this
sermon.

As other pastors have pointed out, Matthew 7:7-11 are
located here for a reason.

Jesus knew how difficult it would be for you and I to
live by the Sermon on the Mount, so He tells us how to obey it.

We are to ask for help.

Matthew 7:7 - Ask,
and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be
opened unto you:

You already know to pray for the physical needs of
others and your own physical needs.

You may also know how to pray for the Spiritual needs
of others.

But how much praying do you and I do concerning our
own Spiritual development?

You know that God tells us to ask according to His
will, and He will grant us our requests.

1 John 5:14-15, John 14:13-14

Every one of Jesus’ teachings in the Sermon on the Mount
is God’s will for your life.He wants
you to obey these teachings, not to earn your way to Heaven, but because as a
Christian, you are a citizen of Heaven!

Because these teachings are God’s will for your life,
you can ask God to empower you to obey.

And these verbs in the Greek, ask…seek…knock, actually
mean, keep on asking…keep on seeking…keep on knocking.

The teachings in the Sermon on the Mount are so importantand
impossible to obey in our own strength, that we need to be continually asking
God for help.

Do you really want to obey the Sermon on the Mount?

When you really want something, you will ask more than
once.

In Luke 11 you will find the same teaching about
asking, seeking, and knocking.And just
before this teaching Jesus tells a story about a man who had surprise house
guests, and no bread to offer.He
knocked on a neighbor’s door, and wouldn’t take “no” for an answer until the
neighbor finally got up and gave him the requested bread.

When we know something is God’s will, we can keep on
asking, knowing that the answer is not “no” but “yes”.

Matthew 7:8 - For
every one that askethreceiveth;
and he that seekethfindeth;
and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

Why do we fail to obey the Sermon on the Mount?

We fail to obey the Sermon on the Mount because we are
not barraging Heaven with requests that we will have the power to obey.

Matthew 7:9-10 - Or
what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?
[10] Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?

Jesus is giving an example here.

He mentions that there wasn’t a father among them that
would give a stone to his child instead of bread or a snake instead of a fish!

Matthew 7:11 - If
ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much
more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask
him?

We as men have sinful natures.

We are sinners by birth and sinners by choice.

And yet we know how to do good things for our children.

Our Heavenly Father is sinless and perfectly
righteous.

How much more will our Heavenly Father give good
things to His children when they ask Him!

Christian, what part of the Sermon on the Mount do you
struggle with the most?

What is it that you know is God’s will, but you are
not doing?

Your home work assignment this week is to continually
asking God to help you obey that teaching, no matter how hard it may be.

Begin your day with asking God for strength to obey
that teaching.

At breakfast time, give a silent prayer for help in
obeying.

Do the same at lunch and dinner time.

And before you go to bed, pray again, asking for help.

There is another ingredient that must be part of your
prayer.

That ingredient is faith. Mark 11:22-24

Think of your disobedience to a teaching in Sermon on
the Mount as a “mountain”.

By faith, ask God to remove that Mountain, and believe
that He will.

Make sure, as you pray, to confess all known sin to
the Lord. Psalm 66:18, 1 John 1:9

Ask God to help you obey His teaching. Your prayers
will impact your life.

BE AN IMPACT PRAY-ERS and

BE AN IMPACT PLAYER – Vs. 12

In sports, and impact player is so influential that he
changes the outcome of the game.

In his hey day Jerome Bettis
was such a player as he would run for big gain after big gain.

Christian, your life can have an impact on others for
God.

Matthew 7:12 - Therefore
all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do
ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.

Notice what Jesus DOES NOT say:

He does not say, “Do unto others, because they did it
to you.”

He does not say, “Do unto others before they do it to
you.”

He DOES say, “Do unto others as ye would have them do
unto you.”

Jesus is saying, “Treat others the way you want to be
treated”

And when treat others the way we want to be treated, we have basically fulfilled the law and the
prophets, the Word of God.

Like all the other teachings in the Sermon on the
Mount, this is impossible to do in our own strength.

We are selfish.

We want our own way.

We want to be comfortable.

We consider ourselves more important than others.

We are constantly “Looking out for Number 1”.

We look out for what is best for ourselves, not what is
best for our neighbors.

How can we ever treat others the way we want to be
treated all the time?That is, how can
we treat others the way we want to be treated 24/7?

First of all, it takes prayer.You need to be an impact pray-er!

Secondly it takes a servant’s heart. It actually takes
the heart of Jesus! Mark 10:42-45

Jesus came to serve!

Not only did Jesus wash the feet of His disciples in
service to others.